Where are they now? 15 years after the plans to sell the antipsychotic Seroquel

IN the NYTimes, in February 2009 the article discusses the internal emails and documents from AstraZeneca's Seroquel team members becoming public. The article discusses an AstraZeneca official named Richard Lawrence praising Lisa Aventis for her great "smoke and mirrors job" for minimizing the antipsychotic's adverse study findings.

It's well known that Study 15 discussed the weight gain issue and the internal documents prove that the key players 10-15 years ago knew the side effects and attempted and succeeded to bury negative evidence and succeed at selling the billion dollar blockbuster drug.

It's now 2011 and the negative outcome for patients is alarming, and very real. U.S. war vets are coming home with PTSD and being rx'd the drug for insomnia and dying in their sleep. Children are being given Seroquel. Seroquel has been approved as a depression treatment add-on. The drug has label revisions to include beyond the diabetes side effect, sudden death risk from QT Prolongation.

The email that boasts "no reliable evidence suggesting a causal relationship between SEROQUEL and diabetes" is evidence enough to show consumers the real reason the drug is sold: profit.

Profit before patient safety. There are 26,000 people who filed lawsuits for diabetes after taking Seroquel. In 2010 AstraZeneca was fined $520 million by the Dept of Justice for illegal marketing of Seroquel.

15 years later, where are those key players now? have they moved on with their careers? do they ever regret what they were part of with regard to the massive sales of this drug that have harmed so many as a result of their behind the scene tactics and smoke and mirrors? do they feel as if they lit a fuse and walked out of the room?

We read the statements in the media by PR from AstraZeneca always denying wrong doing and never admitting guilt with regard to lawsuits or the DoJ fines. Do the key players believe the same thing? are they in denial? what about CEO David Brennan? is this just business as usual? what about the innocent victims of the fallout of a massive marketing campaign? what about them?

EXHIBIT L
DATE: /ri/3/A7,
LINDA ROSSfRiOS


Seroquel Risk-Benefit team

Mission

Establish, review and
maintain AZ position on
risk-benefit in absolute
and relative terms

First review of emerging
safety and efficacy data

Members:

• Martin Brecher
• Joan Shaw
• Ron Leong
• Julia Manning
• Gil Block
• Rohini Chitra
• Susanne Fors
• Jonas Rastad
• Martin Jones

lead
AZ/SER 3992491

Wayne MacFadden, Richard Lawrence, 1996 Seroquel team, Seroquel Strike Force 1996, the ones who were behind the KEY MESSAGE:

"KEY MESSAGE: There remains no reliable evidence suggesting a causal relationship between SEROQUEL and diabetes."


The box warnings on the antipsychotic Seroquel now clearly reflect that causal relationship.